Penny -- Thank you for the merlin report! I occasionally go to Juanita Bay Park, and I did see a solitary male blue-winged teal earlier this summer; I believe it was early June. It was present in the small cove between the two boardwalk overlooks. I have looked for it many times since then, but with no success.

Doug Santoni
Seattle
Ph 305-962-4226
DougSantoni at gmail.com


> On Jul 24, 2020, at 11:28 AM, plkoyama at comcast.net wrote:

>

> 

> Tweets,

> I was doing my almost-daily "Corona walk"-;seeing mostly the same birds in various close-to-home places, and this morning it was at Kirkland's Juanita Bay Park, which was very quiet-;the Common Yellowthroats were calling rather than singing and the only real noisemakers were a family of flickers and a herd of female RW Blackbirds. I was on my way back from the north end of the causeway, though, when an Osprey flew in and out of nowhere a dark falcon took up chase. This was quick, and the falcon, which I assumed to be a Merlin based on size and how dark it was, peeled off. As I got to the section of bare snags just off the west side of the causeway, though, it was sitting up and I had the chance to observe the bird at length, a female "black" Merlin. After several minutes with mostly just AM Goldfinches chirping at her, she took off towards the lake. If you're out there, watch for her.

>

> There was also what I think was a lone, female BW Teal, well off the causeway. I didn't have my scope, but the dark bill looked pretty slender and she was more brown than reddish, indicating BW rather than Cinnamon. Her eye looked dark, but I was at some distance. I've only seen one BWTE there, a male in 10/2016.

>

> It's good to have some surprises in the midst of this "reduced" routine! For a feeder bonus this season, for the first time in 16 yrs., we've had nesting Purple Finches here. Listening to a male sing his rich, garbled song right now.

> Penny Koyama, Bothell

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